Claudio Arrau - Complete Philips Recordings

I was lucky enough to be at one of Arrau's last performances in the late eighties (op. 81a, 111 and Liszt Piano Sonata): in spite of several mishaps (in Liszt, especially), one was still humbled by his depth and beauty of sound production. Therefore, given Amazon special price (considerably lower than anywhere else), I thought it would be a good bargain to get so much from this outstanding pianist in one box - before the price goes up again. It will require hours of serious listening to appreciate all the differences between the two recordings of the Beethoven Sonatas, and I am looking forward to that. The only aspect of this edition I have issues with is the packaging. Not that the design is disappointing, but these boxes take up too much room and really there isn't a place where to keep them all. A while back I purchased 'Horowitz unreleased recordings 50CDs', Karajan-Strauss remastering, Solti's Remastering of the Ring, and they all both come in an LP box format, which makes it easier to sit them on a bookshelf. Sadly, most of the 'opera omnia' like the recent Bach and Mozart, are just square boxes and, for me, it's becoming a problem to arrange neatly. So, four stars only because of this reason - not, clearly, the performance.

the master of te master .... beautifull bach partitas melody....the presentation is very good

Arrau is of course one of the greats and anyone who spends time listening to this set will find music making of a rare quality. Some of his interpretations I love, others I don't, and I'm sure that this will be the same for others. Overall however time spent listening to Arrau is time well spent.My issue with this set, as with the recent de Larrocha set, is that something strange has happened to Decca CD manufacture. Around 20% of the discs in this box can not be read by my Burmester 069 CD player, and I am having to play them on a lesser machine. This has not happened with any older CD sets from Decca, or any CDs from any other source so something strange is going on in the Decca factory. I suspect not many people will have this issue, but you never know....

Choosing classic tracks, worth collecting, great value